I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for re-synchronizing temporary user equipment identifiers (UE IDs) in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, etc. These wireless systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting multiple users by sharing the available system resources. Examples of such multiple-access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, and Single-Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems.
A wireless communication system may include any number of base stations that can support communication for any number of user equipments (UEs). Each base station may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. The overall coverage area of each base station may be partitioned into multiple (e.g., three) smaller areas. The term “cell” can refer to the smallest coverage area of a base station and/or a base station subsystem serving this coverage area.
A UE may communicate with one or more cells at any given moment. The UE may be assigned a temporary UE ID by each cell with which the UE is in communication. A temporary UE ID may be valid for only the cell that assigned the ID and may be used to uniquely identify the UE for communication with that cell. It is desirable to ensure that, at any given moment, the UE is assigned only one valid temporary UE ID by each cell with which the UE is in communication.